Mr. Frog’s Soul and Creole Kitchen to serve last meal on New Year’s Eve

Asheville, you only have two more weeks to get Vijay Shastri’s fried chicken and grits. Mr. Frog’s Soul and Creole Kitchen will serve its last plate of food on New Year’s Eve. “And we’ll spend the remaining time getting our equipment out of here, closing all this stuff down, and hopefully, sometime in the off season, we’ll start looking at other places,” Shastri said.

Shastri and company are vacating their Market Street building to make way for Mountain Housing Opportunities’ upcoming renovations to add a multi-use facility with workforce apartments, offices and some retail to the block. Despite the inconvenience, Shastri remains upbeat. “It will be one of the best things that’s happened to downtown in a while,” said Shastri. “It’s actually affordable housing for people who work here and want to live downtown. People in the service industry, police officers, fire department folks. It really makes sense.”

Even though renovations won’t begin until late spring 2013, Shastri said the time to go is now. “We would need to operate through June, July and August to be able to make any sense out of going through the off-season in Asheville. It makes sense for both parties, because they need us out of their way,” he said. “They’re going to cut this building in half.”

Shastri said he’ll begin looking for a new restaurant space next year. “My whole outlook is that something is going to fall into our laps,” he said. “We’re going to be able to locate something that works perfectly for the next permutation of the Frog.”

In the meantime, Shastri said he’ll be working both in the back and front of the house at Ristorante Paoletti in Highlands. “They have a big wine program and really, really good food,” he said. “I just need to get back in the fine-dining realm for a little while. Because I do actually enjoy it. I’m going to a place that’s perfect for me, up until it’s time to come back.”